Aiden is Almost 4!!!!

What activities and experiences that you and your child engage in might be promoting healthy behavioral practices and an interest in physical activity?

As a family we encourage Aiden to play outside. He is very good at playing catch, kicking the soccer ball around, you name it as an outdoor activity and Aiden does extremely well doing it. He enjoys playing outside rather than inside. I'm sure he'll be bummed when the rains come this fall. We do watch educational shows and cartoons occasionally. Mainly when it is too hot outside or when I need to get a few things done around the house & Aiden's little sister is sleeping (which thankfully is a lot right now since we just brought her home for the hospital), this is my only time to get things done. The two of them keep me pretty busy! My husband and I try to show Aiden to make the most out of outside play. We are trying to save up for a house so we've been staying home a lot and trying to use what we already have and enjoy. I think this is part of the reason Aiden enjoys playing outside so much is because we try and go the park as often as we can.

Describe development of your child’s language and cognitive skills and discuss how these might be affecting his or her interactions with you & your responses.

Aiden is doing ok with his language. He does have issues sometimes but overall he does rather well. He loves to tell people stories! He does tend to leave out parts that kind of put the entire story together so I usually ask him questions after hes done to fill in the gaps for who ever he is talking to. He isn't shy when it comes to talking about things he likes to do or has done. Along with his story telling Aiden has acquired a new "story", he likes to get away with things around the house by lying to us about it when we ask him. Unfortunately we haven't caught him in the act of taking a cookie before dinner (which he leaves crumbs all over the counter) or other things hes lying to us about. When we do it will be good because we can explain to him that lying is not ok and that when you lie to people you hurt their feelings. I think other than Aiden lying to us we interact well together. Most of the time we understand what hes saying and if we don't he is usually pretty good in trying to explain what he means to us.

How well is your child adapting to social situations in the home and outside the home? Does your child have any behavior or emotional problems at this point? Why do you think these problems are occurring and what are you doing about them?

We weren't seeing to much aggression or tantrums before we had Kimber (our newest little bundle of joy), once she came home from the hospital Aiden as shown signs of regressing, he acts like a baby again, crying more, being a lot more whiny, uncooperative, and not using his words. We are trying to show him that it is more fun being a big brother than the baby. He does pride himself on being the big brother and he has shown a lot of interest in Kimber. Other than adjusting to Kimber, Aiden has been doing well at school interacting with other children and being well behaved and following rules at preschool. We are letting Aiden adjust to having Kimber at home with us and if his disobedience continues then we will have to look into figuring out a way to correct it and get Aiden back on track. I just think he is adjusting to Kimber and he will be back to behaving like the big boy that he is in no time!